Illnesses and deformities in the kite runner6th, Truelove Alex

What role do illnesses and deformities play in the novel?

Oat Cell Carcinoma

All though out The Kite Runner we see examples of illness and deformities in almost all characters, both physical and mental. The doctor who wrote The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini has seen many patients though out his career whom we can only assume are exampled in this fictional master piece. Hosseini places ill and deformed characters in The Kite Runner to show us how no matter what our background is, we all bleed the same. We are all capable of falling to an illness and can give into something that deforms us, something that changes us as a person. Hosseini illustrates this though Baba's cancer, Hassan's cleft lip, and Faried's war injuries.

Lets begin with the best example of this in the book, which would be the great Baba. though out Amir's journey we learn about what an amazing man Baba is, and how almost nothing can stop him from getting to his goals. Baba the man who once "wrestled a black bear in Baluchistan with his bear hands." Obviously Baba is seen as a very capable person who can take on anything, but we soon find out that although Baba is a force not to be tampered with, he is still just a man. Now Baba was a great person, but he had the terrible habit of smoking and we all know what happens when you can't kick a bad habit, it get's worse. "Cancer had many names Baba's was called Oat Cell Carinoma." Despite all Baba was he still could never beat cancer, it was a battle he and everyone else knew was doomed from the start. I think that's just of one things Hosseini tries to tell us with illness, sometimes there's just no way to win.

Next up we have Hassan and his cleft lip. Now Hassan's deformity I think in some ways forms before the story even takes place. I feel that it gives him that nature of how not to judge others and really makes him a kind and loving person he is in the novel. There's also how people make fun of his chin that teaches him that as well. Even Hassan's mother "barked a bitter laughter" right after seeing him for the first time. I suppose that's basically how you sum up Hassan as a person, the most loving person on Earth but always put down by others for who he is. Although we never see deformity change him we do see how after Hassan has his lip fixed is ironically around the same time that Hassan "stopped smiling." Considering that, I guess in a way Hosseini shows that just because things are going good for you doesn't mean it'll last, if anything it should only worry you.

Cleft Lip

Finally we have Faried, a man who has lost more than any of us can even imagine and who's deformities have truly changed him completely despite us never meeting the old Faried. I would say the thing that makes Faried's deformities so unique is that they do nothing but remind him how not only did he lose his fingers and toes but also how he lost his "two youngest girls to a landmine" now just imagine that for a moment, your only twenty-nine years old and you've lost two children plus you're scared for life to insert the same exact moment into your head of how you lost them to "the same explosion that had severed toes from his feet and three fingers." You would also be a pretty mean and not the type to pick on after such an experience, you might even be a bit dangerous.

sorry if this is gross to you ://

With all this said I feel that all of these characters shows you how an illness or deformity can take you from being a kind and loving person to a silent one, or how it can take a strong and respected man to a weak and fading one. That's why I am a firm believer that what Hosseini wants us to really take from this is that a simple illness or a deformity can take the person we are and destroy at the snap of a finger.